Parasoft delivers a complete framework to create, manage, and extract greater value from unit tests. We help you exercise and test an incomplete system-enabling you to identify problems when they are least difficult, costly, and time-consuming to fix, which in turn reduces the length and cost of downstream processes such as debugging. Our patented technologies automatically generate tests that not only verify code correctness and reliability at multiple levels, but also capture the code's code behavior to establish a baseline for regression testing. Once this baseline test suite is in place, you can incrementally improve its intelligence and value by:

• Extending the automatically-generated xUnit test cases.
• Integrating your legacy xUnit test cases (or writing new ones).
• Exercising the use case scenarios for the functionality you want to "freeze." Parasoft Tracer will observe the code behavior and automatically design unit test cases with real data that represents the paths taken through the application.

Collectively, these test cases establish a safety net that alerts the team when modifications impact application behavior. Since all tests are written at the unit level, the test suite can be run independent of the complete system to isolate code behavior changes, reduce setup complexities, and make it practical to execute on a daily basis.

Baseline

If your team has a large code base with minimal tests or no tests, the fastest route to regression testing is to automatically generate a regression test suite that captures the code's current behavior– and then run it daily to determine if code modifications break existing functionality. To help you achieve this, we scan the project code base, then automatically generate a baseline set of unit test cases that capture the code's current behavior. Then, we establish a continuous regression testing process that ensures code modification impacts are identified and addressed daily, and the test suite stays in synch with the evolving application. This provides a safety net that helps developers rapidly change code with confidence, which is especially critical for teams working on complex and constantly-evolving applications.

Extended

Parasoft provides a variety of technologies to help you extend the automatically-generated test cases to verify specific functionality requirements and/or increase coverage. We provide a number of ways to help you increase the value of the automatically-generated test suite with minimal effort; for example:

• Manually extending the generated xUnit (JUnit, CppUnit, NUnit, Cactus, HttpUnit, etc.) test classes.
• Using an object repository and flexible stubs framework to make tests more realistic.
• Leveraging test data stored in a data source to extend the coverage of existing tests.

Manual

Parasoft solutions can execute your existing xUnit (JUnit, CppUnit, NUnit, Cactus, HttpUnit, etc.) test cases, allowing you to centralize your test execution, reporting, and coverage analysis. Our reporting and authorship calculation capabilities help the team track which test cases failed, since when, and who is responsible for fixing each failure. The team can run all of their tests in command-line mode each night. In the morning, each developer can import the regression failures caused by their modifications; this provides instant feedback on whether their code changes broke the existing functionality. Since each regression failures are directed to the developer responsible for them, the overall process of fixing them is much more streamlined than it would be if all developers had to review the same long list of test failures.

Functional

Parasoft's Tracer technology provides a fast and easy way to create the realistic test cases required for functional testing. Simply use the application's UI or Parasoft's SOA/Web solution to execute the use cases you want to verify. Tracer automatically designs unit test cases with real data that represents the paths taken through the application. No coding or scripting is required. If the functionality associated with your "traced" use cases later breaks, you will be alerted by the failure of the related test cases.

The generated unit tests directly correlate tests to source code, which improves error identification and diagnosis, and allows developers to run these test cases without having to depend on access to the production environment or set up a complex staging environment. This facilitates collaboration between QA and Development: QA can provide developers traced test sessions with code-level test results, and these tests help developers identify, understand, and resolve the problematic code.